Young Superstars Series 1 recap

Wasn't that fun.

So, where do we stand.  21 of the 26 teams playing in 1988 are represented in Series 1.  Not represented in the American League are the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners.  In the National League, neither the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers have cards.

Let's break it down by division and see how many cards we have from each team:

AL East:
Baltimore Orioles - 1
Boston Red Sox - 4
Cleveland Indians - 2
Detroit Tigers - 2
Milwaukee Brewers - 2
New York Yankees - 0
Toronto Blue Jays - 1

AL West:
California Angels - 2
Chicago White Sox - 2
Kansas City Royals - 1
Minnesota Twins - 0
Oakland Athletics - 4
Seattle Mariners - 0
Texas Rangers - 2

NL East:
Chicago Cubs - 0
Montreal Expos - 1
New York Mets - 1
Philadelphia Phillies - 1
Pittsburgh Pirates - 1
St. Louis Cardinals - 1

NL West:
Atlanta Braves - 1
Cincinnati Reds - 2
Houston Astros - 1
Los Angeles Dodgers - 0
San Diego Padres - 3
San Francisco Giants - 5

The Giants are the winners with five players featured.  Stay tuned to see what Series 2 brings us.

Young Superstars #40 - Cory Snyder

Do you ever see someone, and just from their picture you know you hate them and would like to punch them in the mouth? Maybe I'm a freak with a violent temper, but that's how this picture makes me feel about Cory Snyder. He has that 1980s wannabe badass hair cut and mustache and gold chains... I just wanna punch him.

I don't know a damn thing about him or his career, but I just want to hit him. I'm sorry, but I can't get over it. I'm sure he's a nice guy, and if he reads this, I apologize. But that picture just makes him look like an asshole.

Well, now that I've gotten that out of my system what can I say nice about Cory Snyder. He played for the 1984 silver medal winning United States baseball team at the Olympics and in 1993 he led NL batters with 143 strikeouts (oops).

Sorry Cory, I know you're not a bad guy...

Cory Snyder's career statistics

Young Superstars #39 - Kal Daniels

The jersey looks like someting out of a 1950s sci-fi film. Especially the wrist wrap things... "We come from the planet Kalvoski, beware our big sticks and goofy goggles."

For some reason I remeber Kal Daniels as being a much better player than he was. And for some reason in my mind he had a much longer career than seven years. I guess because I always seemed to be pulling him out of packs. I probably have at least one Kal Daniels from every set I collected between 1988 and 1992.

My faulty memory aside, Daniels had an ok career. He got off to a great start his first several years, but his numbers fell off sharply after about 1988 and he only played in 55 games in 1989. He had a pretty good year in 1990, but was finished after 1992 at the age of 28.

Kalvoski Daniels' career statistics

Young Superstars #38 - Tracy Jones

Here's another shot from Wrigley with what looks like two Cubs fans arguing in the front row and a bald guy with yellow glasses in the second row enjoying the argument. In the fourth row on the left side of the card, there's a guy who's clearly skipping work to enjoy the game. Hope his boss never saw this card...

"Johnson, what were you doing at a Cubs Reds game when you were supposed to be at work sometime in 1987?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir."

"Well, I've got this baseball card here..."

[curtain closes, Johnson no longer has a job and the audience goes home angry at the horrible play they had to sit through]

December 8, 1988 Jones was traded from the Expos to the Giants for a guy we saw a few days ago, Mike Aldrete.

After his playing career, Jones was a controversial host of the "Extra Innings" show after ever Cincinnati Reds radio broadcast. His school of thought was that if you never played baseball, you can't possibly know enough to talk about it. I'm sure that won him a lot of fans.

Since then he's done other radio work.

Tracy Jones' career statistics

Young Superstars #37 - Ellis Burks

For some reason he looks a ittle bit like Darryl Strawberry in the photo on the front of the card.

He, along with guys like Larry Walker, Dante Bichette and Andres Galarraga, started getting national attention as members of the Colorado Rockies, with the elevated (nudge nudge wink wink) home run numbers at Coors Field. But despite that, I've always thought he was an underrated player.

He'll never be a Hall of Famer, but he put up some great numbers for a long time. He had an outstanding year in 2000 while playing for San Francisco. That year he batter .344/.419/.606 with 24 homers and 96 RBIs. His 2.8 plate apperances per game kept him from top ten finishes in a lot of the batting categories though.

These days he's working in the Cleveland Indians front office.

Ellis Burks' career statistics

Young Superstars #36 - Ruben Sierra

Here's another card that was most likely taken at the same game as the Polonia, Canseco and Incaviglia cards. This is a great looking photo of a player who put together a very solid twenty year Major League career.

He's no Hall of Famer, but he was a very good player for a lot of years, going to the All Star game four times, winning one Silver Slugger and he was named 2001's AL Comeback Player of the Year.

Ruben Sierra's career statistics

Young Superstars #35 - Mike Aldrete

Here's a shot of some blurry fans at Wrigley. The look on Aldrete's face says "oh no, I just realized I'm swinging a tiny bat instead of my regular one." As Andy has pointed out, there are some strange bat shots in 88 Score, but this one may be the strangest.

Though he had a good year in 1987 (.325/.396/.462/51RBI), it was a fluke and he never came close to those numbers again.

Since 2001, he's been a coach or instructor in the Diamondbacks, Mariners and Cardinals systems.

Mike Aldrete's career statistics

Young Superstars #34 - Casey Candaele

I miss the Expos. I miss their old blue away jersey and I especially miss their old field cap and batting helmet.

Are those Padres I see in the background, or Giants?

Casey Candaele is the first player in this set that I had to sit back and ask myself "who?" I know the name, but for the life of my can't tell you one thing about his career other than he played in Montreal. But I guess the same can be said of a lot of Expos.

Candaele played for nine seasons and while the bat wasn't his best weapon, he was a very versitile fielder with a better than average fielding percentage (though lower than average range). Over the course of his career, he played at least one game at every position except for pitcher.

Casey Candaele's career statistics

Young Superstars #33 - John Farrell

Another card with some extremely blurry fans in the background. And the second OSU alum in a row.

John Farrell's career was nothing to write home about. He posted a winning record in only two of his eight seasons and lost ten games or more three times.

Despite his less than great career, Farrell must know something about pitching. He was hired to be the pitching coach for the Red Sox after the 2006 season.

John Farrell's career statistics

Young Superstars #32 - Pete Incaviglia

The photo on the front of this card was mostly likely taken during the same game as the Jose Canseco card we saw a few days ago.

Pete Incaviglia had an outstanding career at Oklahoma State University, and still holds the NCAA record for home runs and RBIs in a season. In 2007 he was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Incaviglia is one of a short list of players who went directly into the major leagues without stepping foot on a minor league field before hand. He was drafted by the Expos in 1985 but refused to play in the minors and was traded to Texas. Despite having never seen professional pitching before, and it shows in his batting average, Pete had an outstanding rookie season (1986) at the plate. Aside from the afore mentioned batting average (.250), he hit 30 home runs and drove in 88 runs. The next year he raised his average to .271 and still hit 27 homers and drove in 80. Not too shabby.

After retiring in 1998, Pete coached in the Detroit tigers organization and managed in the independant leagues.

Pete Incaviglia's career statistics

I can't type...

Young Superstars #31 - Todd Benzinger

Not a very good photo on the front of this card. It's a late afternoon shot with the shadow of the stadium creeping into play. The picture on the back looks a lot like a twenty five year old Ron Howard.

The Red Sox being pretty high on this guy when he came up, but he never really stuck in one place for very long. The only thing I can remember about him is that he played on the Reds 1990 World Series winning team.

Digging into his stats there's really not a lot to say. In 1988 and 1989 he showed a little potential for power at the plate, but never hit more than 9 home runs any other year of his career. He led the National League in both at bats and outs in 1989, nothing to be too proud of.

He's managing the Dayton Dragons, an A level farm team of the Cincinnati Reds system.

Todd Benzinger's career statistics

Young Superstars #30 - Jose Canseco

Here we go. This is the biggest card in the set, at least in 1988 terms.

Canseco's got the rubber bat thing going on that Andy has mentioned several times on the 88 Score Rookies & Traded blog. And the ball is coming into the picture right along the righthand border. I wonder where that ball landed?

He's also got the field cap under the batting helmet look here, which is always nice to see.

What can you say about Jose Canseco's career that hasn't already been said? For all the things that he did wrong, I don't think there's a whole lot of us who grew up in the 80s who can honestly say we didn't like him (late 80s Dodger fans are .

Like I said months back when we were looking at the base release, I don't have a lot of respect left for Canseco, but I still like him. He was fun to watch in his prime, and he was almost painful and embarassing to watch as his career declined.

There are some who would argue that Canseco never really reached the potential he was capable of. In light of the steroid issue I don't know how valid of an argument that is. I'm sure side effects of the steroids played some role in the injuries he suffered later in his career.

But I'm not here to criticize him for what he did to baseball and what steroids have done to baseball. I'd like to, and I have a lot to say about it. But in the end, in 1988 there was no one in baseball that was more popular, larger than life and more fun to watch than Jose Canseco. And for that reason I'll always like him, even if I do know the truth about him.

Jose Canseco's career statistics

Young Superstars #29 - Ken Caminiti

Caminiti is wearing a home jersey here, but there's what looks like a whole lot of white caps in the crowd behind him. They could be very blurry Astros logos though, but they almost look like the old Blue Jays caps that had a white panel on the front.

I'm curious where this picture was taken. I don't think it's in the Astrodome because you can see what looks like the reflection of the stadium, a light standard and the sky in his helmet.

Spring training maybe?

Who outside of Houston paid much attention to Ken Caminiti before 1994? Probably not a whole lot of people.

He started his career in Houston in 1987 but didn't really stick until 1989. His production at the plate was far from outstanding, hitting above .283 only twice in his first tour of duty with the Astros. His highest homerun mark was 18 in 1994. A far cry from the numbers he'd put up a few years later, but the Astrodome was never known as a hitter's park.

He saw a remarkable upswing in production and power, though, once he moved to San Diego. His RBI totals in San Diego were considerably higher than in Houston, a byproduct of hitting in a batting order that also contains Tony Gwynn.

Caminiti was a three time Gold Glover and All Star and won the NL MVP (100% of first place votes) after putting up great numbers in 1996.

After four years with the Padres, Caminiti went back to Houston before splitting the 2001 season with Texas and Atlanta.

In 2002, Sports Illustrated informed us that Caminiti admitted to using steroids during his 1996 MVP season. His admission was the first time an MLB player came forward and said "yes I did." He had also previously admitted to struggling with drugs and alcohol throughout his career.

Caminiti suffered from coronary artery disease and an enlarged heart, only made worse by his drug problems. He died on October 10, 2004 at the age of 41. The official cause of death was a heart attack, made worse by the high levels of cocaine and opiates found in his system.

This is the first player we've seen who has died since the printing of this set.

Ken Caminiti's career statistics

Young Superstars #28 - Robby Thompson

Robby Thompson was a two time All Star (though he didn't appear in either game), Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award winner. In 1993 he had a career year, hitting tenth in the league at .312, and earned his second trip to the All Star game, along with the afore mentioned Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.

He was hit in the face by a Trevor Hoffman pitch late in the 1993 season and was never really the same player. He came back and played sparingly through the end of the 1996 season.

Granted free agency during the 1996 off season, he signed with the Cleveland Indians but never played in a Major League game with his new team.

This is just the second card showing a player not batting or pitching. It's the first interesting one, the other was Terry Steinbach standing around in his catcher's gear.

Young Superstars #27 - Wally Joyner

Though he played for a number of teams during his career, when I think Wally Joyner, I think California Angels. Between two stints in Anaheim, Joyner spent time in Kansas City, San Deigo and Atlanta.

In 1986, Joyner was the first rookie to be voted into the All Star game by fans and that year he tied for the win with Darryl Strawberry in the Home Run Derby. He and Strawberry both hit an amazing four home runs.

Though he remained consistent through his sixteen year career, Joyner was never really a superstar caliber player. Honestly, as closely as I've followed the Braves for the past 20 years, I'd forgotten about his year in Atlanta. He spent most of the year as a backup at first for Andres Galarraga, but did start in 32 games and was used as a DH for some interleague games. If Galarraga hadn't been able to come back in 2000 (he missed the entire 1999 season with cancer) Joyner most likely would have been the starter.

Several years after his retirement, Joyner told ESPN The Magazine that he had used steroids for a brief time during his days with the Padres. He had appearantly talked with Ken Caminiti (who we'll see pretty soon) about how to get steroids, though he claims he only took several of the pills. He was mentioned in the 2007 Mitchell Report.

This is another card where the fans are so blurry that they look painted. Aside from that, and I may have mentioned this before, I really like the old Angels cap logo. I wish they'd make things easier on all of us and just call themselves the California Angels again.

Wally Joyner's career statistics

Young Superstars #26 - Mike Dunne

Mike Dunne finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting in 1987, but his career never really took off from there. In his rookie season he went 13-6 with a 3.03 ERA, but went 7-11 the next year with the Pirates. Injuries took their toll and Dunne never pitched more than 99 innings in the final three seasons of his career. His final career line is 25-30, 4.08 ERA, 205 strikeouts, 225 walks in 474+ innings.

His base card is nearly identical to the Young Superstars release. Probably the same pitch.



Mike Dunne's career statistics

Young Superstars #25 - Will Clark

Here's another Young Superstar that I think lived up to that name. He was consistently productive for fifteen seasons and finished his career with a .303 batting average. At first base he was solid and won the Gold Glove in 1991.

The front of the card shows the sweet swing that Will Clark was known for.

If you want to see more Will Clark cards that you can shake a stick at, check out Thrill22.com.

Will Clark's career statistics

Young Superstars #24 - Mike Greenwell

Mike Greenwell put up good numbers in all but a few injury shortened seasons with the Red Sox. His life time batting average is over .300, he was an All Star twice. So why is it that you just don't hear too much about Mike Greenwell?

He played on some bad Sox teams and some good Sox teams, though he didn't perform well in the post season (he batted just .146 in 17 post season games). In 1988 he finished second in MVP voting to baseball's first 40-40 man. But since Canseco's admission of cheating, Greenwell has publically stated that he feels the MVP should have been his. But that's a debate for another time.

So why don't we hear much about Mike Greenwell? Because during his most productive days in Boston, there was another guy in the Sox line up who was regularly hittnig .330 and above.

Wade Boggs aside, Mike Greenwell had an outstanding career, the entirety spent with the Boston Red Sox. You don't see that too often anymore.

I'm not sure about the head shot on the reverse, but the photo on the front of this card was not taken at the same game as the base release (both were taken at Fenway though).

Mike Greenwell's career statistics

Young Superstars #23 - Dave Magadan

Dave Magadan is a player that doesn't really get as much credit as he deserved. He was an outstanding contact hitter in his six seasons with the Mets, but was overlooked on a team with Strawberry, Gooden and an aging Keith Hernandez. After leaving New York he continued to put up repectable numbers at the plate, but in an era of power hitters, he was forgotten. His life time batting average is solid at .288. His .328 in 1990 even earned him a few MVP votes.

He never developed the power the his cousin (and godfather), Lou Piniella mentioned on the back of the card. But the ability to hit the ball to all fields is vital.

Limited playing time hurt his numbers for much of his career and he never could stick as a starter for too long in any one place.

These days, Magadan is the hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox and in his time there, team batting has improved.

The photo on the front of the card shows us a nice level swing, head down to keep the eye on the ball all the way through the strike zone. I'm not sure about the front, but the head shot on the reverse was taken at the same time as the base release.

Dave Magadan's career statistics

Young Superstars #22 - Luis Polonia

Luis Polonia was a pretty good contact hitter, posting a .293 lifetime average. He even played on two World Series winning teams (1995 Braves, 2000 Yankees). But what he will be most remembered for is a trade on June 21, 1989. He, along with Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk were sent to the New York Yankees for a 30 year old, future Hall of Fame outfielder. Seems kinda like Oakland got the better end of that deal.

This card gets some points for the field cap under the batting helmet look that you don't see too often these days. Actually, I can't think of anyone that I've seen do this recently... any ideas?

Luis Polonia's career statistics